Overview of our issues to date

As we sit back a little over a year in to the process, the biggest things that disappoint us right now are noted below.  It's too early to say what the quality of the actual home is like, although to date we like what we see and the general workmanship seems good to the untrained eye. 

We want to frame our issues first though... from the outset we have been extremely clear that two things are important to us....

1. no hidden costs and be realistic and conservative on hidden costs
2. be conservative and realistic on timing estimates provided to us

We also made it clear that we wanted high quality finishes throughout the home.

I'm not exaggerating when I say we've probably reiterated this message to various staff members dozens of times.  We've not asked for much more.  Look out for the 'BEWARES' throughout our blog... things we wished we knew before we started and things they don't tell you because it's not in their interest to secure a sale.

Missed timings
Over and over and over again deadlines that we were advised of have been missed.  And it's cost us a small fortune (which was the exact reason we asked for realistic deadlines... to help forecast and manage costs).

We have responded to all queries in quick order through the process and have made very few material changes during the tender process (none since contracts were signed).

Hopefully this will give you a feel for the key contributors to the delays and a flavour of some of the drivers:

Overall build time guidance
What they said
The salesman we spoke to originally in July / August 2013 told us that if we signed tenders right away (which we did) our build would kick off by December 2013, and it would take 36 weeks to build.

What happened
Building did not start until 19th May 2014.... a delay from guidance provided of 5 months!!!  We also found out very late in the process that the 36 week process was actually 45 weeks because we chose a larger home.... even though we had already chosen the Elyse 15 when discussing timing with the saleman.  BEWARE:  ensure specific timing for your desired home is provided and not 'base/entry level' timing.  Key contributing factors included:

1. 3 week delay in returning our first tender (took 6 weeks in total)
2. numerous mistakes (on alkira's part) were found throughout the finalisation of tender process we added several weeks (mistakes included simple things like the costing not adding up correctly)
3. The home option gallery (where you go to pick internal and external features such as bricks, kitchens) being fully booked with no available slots  - this delayed the process by 3 weeks beyond guidance.  BEWARE:  they only open Mon-Fri (and they don't tell you that during the sales process of course)
4. Christmas shutdown.  BEWARE: the entire industry shuts for 5 weeks solid over Dec/Jan period.  Whilst we've only been in Australia for 3 years, we're aware that many people take vacations over this period.  However, we felt it pretty awful that no one from the sales team told us that their offices shut down for 3-4 weeks over this period, along with further shutdowns across many of their key contractors / selection outlets which adds to delays
5. Restricted from booking our second home options gallery appointment until the second part of the contract had been signed.  Again, no one told us this from the outset and it added another few weeks of delays as we couldn't book in advance and there was a long lead time on bookings
6. Kitchen drawings taking almost 3 months to be completed (yes 3 months!).  We made the selections on 17th December, and received drawings on 11th March.
7. The general process and information flow was very poor.  We could have been told information about the various suppliers that you're required to use ahead of time, but for an unknown reason we were not told the names of suppliers and therefore couldn't pre-arrange appointments to view the choices available to us and do some research.  This caused not only delays as we had to wait for available appointments, but also an unenjoyable selection process as everything ended up being a bit rushed.  BEWARE: Ask for the names of each of the companies you're forced to use for your selections.  This should include general selections, brick companies, tile companies, flooring/carpet companies, and kitchen companies.

BEWARE:  Another thing they don't tell you upfront.... your contract will be fixed price and fixed time, but there is zero time built in to the contract for wet weather / supplier delays etc etc.  This means that whilst you might be contracted to say, a 45 week build, the builder can file for variation claims which allow them to extend the build time without penalty, if, for example there are a few mm of rain on any given day.

Overall cost guidance
What they said
Having (time and again) requested conservative estimates for all costings, we were assured there would be no hidden costs through the process and that conservative estimates would be included for 'provisional allowances' (these are costs which cannot be precisely tidied down up front such as removal of underground rock from your site).

What happened
I'm not exaggerating when I say that there was not one single instance when an actual cost ended up coming in lower than the quote or cost estimate provided.  And there were plenty when the estimates blew out considerably... below are some examples:

1. we selected a fireplace for our home.  We requested an exact replica of a fireplace in their main Kellyville Elyse 15 showhome... i.e. the fireplace next door to their sales office.  The sales rep included a provisional allowance for $8,500 and assured us when we signed preliminary contracts that this would be sufficient.  The final cost was $15,000!!!!
2. Advised that we wouldn't require a provisional allowance for flooring.  Whilst generally, the selections available for most options are quite extensive (including tiles, bricks) the flooring selections are very limited and very low quality.  Our final flooring costs added $21,000 to the bill.
3. Despite having an initial survey conducted by Alkira's team early on in the process, we found very late on that significant rock excavation would be required.  This added $15,000 to the bill.  We were assured that the initial survey was thorough and would pick up everything required...
4. Despite knowing exactly where we were building, we were not told of the need to add to very large underground water tanks to the bill until late on in the process at a cost of $11,600
5. I'm not kidding when we say there were dozens of other pricing mistakes, exclusively not in our favour.... not one single time did we find an error in our favour.  All I can say is BEWARE!! Review everything very carefully.

In light of the timing guidance provided, we asked our tenants to leave the property and ended up missing out on 3 months of potential rent ($6k) due to the delays caused by Alkira. 

You can see that we're not talking about immaterial issues.... all up the experience from initial tender to commencement of building was shocking.  Probably the worst thing of all is that very early on they get you financially committed.  When we raised all of our issues through the process they continually provided assurances, but did nothing about the actual financial impacts we suffered. 

So summing everything up - $60k in costs greater than we anticipated due possibly to poor sales processes / honesty / transparency (we're not sure which, maybe a bit of everything) about what we should expect.  And if you add in the additional rent we'll now have to pay in excess of what we budgeted based on their indicated timings you're looking at the initial 5 month (21 weeks) delays, then add 9 weeks additional build time plus time variance claims (again nothing mentioned about this from early sales processes) of 5 weeks for Christmas shutdown and probably 2 weeks for rain delays. That's 37 weeks extra rent and we're based in the Northern beaches.  Call it $30k of rent.

So $90k all up in additional costs over what we budgeted for based on the information advised to us through the sales process.... after we said we wanted them to be realistic and conservative.